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Microsoft Uses "I'm a PC" Character In New Ads
arcticstoat writes to tell us that in the wake of their largely unsuccessful Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign Microsoft is setting their sights directly on recent Apple ads by featuring the "I'm a PC" character in their new advertising campaign. "He then follows this with another phrase, such as 'and I've been made into a stereotype' before the advert shifts to a range of people performing a diverse assortment of jobs, all of which also say they're a PC. Among those featured are astronaut Bernard Harris, as well as religious author Deepak Chopra and 'Desperate Housewives' actress Eva Longoria. The ad also features a wide range of anonymous people, including a shark diver, a teacher and a guy with a beard."
Sold.
If that quack uses Windows then I'm going to hug my Linux box when I get home.
...but I run Linux.
The new ad is saying that PC users are a diverse cross-section of humanity, while Mac-users are stuck-up racist white people. Of course, they are.
It's a lie! The guy with the beard has to be running Linux.
Prediction: Apple, in what is becoming a war of "Who can make the most annoying ad" hires carrottop to do their next series.
Microsoft responds with bill gates simply walking on camera, then making "the most annoying sound in the world" for 2 minutes straight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cVlTeIATBs)
Okay, you had me up until that point, but this campaign is as doomed as the previous. We all know which operating system guys with beards use.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
just buy vista. it doesnt matter if you use it or not. i cant stand anymore of this "im a..." bullshit. Someone at least tag this with a "pleasestop"??
Good people go to bed earlier.
do they have a guy running round a street with a shotgun shooting people shouting "It crashed and lost my f***** work, I'm a b****** PC you c**** !"
No? Perhaps its modelled after Vista... a huge fat guy stuffing his face full of burgers, "I'm a PC, now give me more resources".
No? Pity, they'd be more in-tune with reality :-)
Given that Microsoft is parodying the Mac vs. PC ads, this is on topic, right?
Best Mac vs. PC parody ever.
Computers suck.
I find it amazing the extent that Microsoft is screwing up at the moment.
Hey Apple marketing guys, Microsoft is doing your work for you!
This one is for free:
Justin Long: I'm a Mac.
John Hodgman and large crowd, together: And I'm a PC.
Justin Long [sincerely]: Hey guys, nice to meet you! There's so many of you! And you look like cool guys!
[John Hodgman looks smug]
Justin Long: I'd really like to hang out with you guys. [face lights up with idea]. Hey, would you like so see some of the new products we're working on?
[Lots of enthusiastic noise and nots - everyone follows Justin as he exits stage right. John Hodgman desperately tries to stop people. Final sequence - John Hodgman on his own, looking sorry for himself and a bit confused.]
Guy with a beard? Fucking traitor!!!
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
My wife saw the ad and made the best comment ever.
"I need to go out and buy a Mac now! I can not dorky enough to use Windows anymore."
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Wait, don't you mean "they're still getting a lot of things done..."?
It's a Freudian Astroturf!
The announcement that Mac ads involving "I am a Mac, I am a PC" infringe Microsoft's patent US PTO 123456789, but Apple would be welcome to sign an indemnification deal that allows Microsoft to sell coupons to TV watchers to watch Mac ads.
In Windows, you don't have any practical walls, firewalls, that is.
Just remember, with Microsoft, simply because there are no walls doesn't mean you aren't behind locked Gates.
False advertising is illegal, why isn't massively disseminating misinformation?
Because then all advertising would be illegal.
Good!? Good?! They were GREAT! I ran out and bought a new Windows Majave laptop!!! Who is laughing now steve jobs?!
So, the message is, if you can't use proper English, you should buy a Mac?
It's a Freudian Astroturf!
2 days ago, I was posting how I thought Vista sucks (see here. Then I was accused of having a religious stance against Microsoft - which I thought was ironic considering I don't own a Mac, haven't owned a Linux system for about 12 years (Slackware 3.1 was the last distribution I used if I remember correctly) and work all day every day on Microsoft products.
So now I say I like Microsoft's commercial and now I'm astro-turfing for Microsoft.
Gotta love the Slashdot crowd.
I'm a big tall mofo.
Oh, the guy with a beard? He's using a PC, but it's running Linux. He was just forced to pay the Microsoft tax.
These are as annoying as those stupid "I AM" ads that Lotus used to run. Remember them? They had guys holding up "I AM" signs like this to try and convince you that Lotus R5 was the bridge everyone else was jumping off.
Who the hell actually liked Lotus R5? Anyone? Anyone?
Who in the hell actually likes Windows? I mean, enough to identify themselves with it?
"Hi I'm a PC, and I'm really defensive about it..."
Title says it all.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
The purpose of John Hodgman was not to "stereotype" PC users.
In that case, they failed hard, because that's exactly how he comes off in the commercials. What they supposedly were trying to make cheeky, light-hearted ads came off as insulting and mean-spirited towards the very people they want to advertise to. If that isn't bad marketing, I don't know what is.
Gee, if the shoe fits - do you look like John Hodgman by chance?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I use a Mac (as well as a Windows box), but I would no sooner say, "I'm a Mac" than I would, "I'm a Pepper."
But wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?
College? Maybe you'd like to try some of that delicious pizza over there?
If firefighters fight fire, and crimefighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight? - George Carlin
I'm a Mac and I found it to be pretty decent, for a commercial about an operating system.
You know, I was about to say how the worst thing about that ad was the way it failed to create the idea that the people shown are really computers, and instead shows a bunch of people rabidly obsessed with their particular kind of computer. "Who the hell calls themselves a computer?", I thought. I found it creepy.
"I'm a PC and I turn #2* into energy!"
I dunno, it just seems so appropriate for the Microsoft Ad.
*#2 = shit.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
better != good
With one-liners like that, you should become a consultant.
It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
much better than the Seinfeld ones, anyway.
So is stepping into a bathtub full of agitated electric eels, but I wouldn't recommend Microsoft use that as a marketting strategy either.
That was either the start of something bad or the end of something stupid.
Operating systems need to stop being argued like a religion, I'm getting tired of it.
Blasphemy....burn the witch!
much better than the Seinfeld ones, anyway.
So is stepping into a bathtub full of agitated electric eels, but I wouldn't recommend Microsoft use that as a marketting strategy either.
Actually that might work.
I think it's much better than the Apple ones as well, in that it doesn't have that obnoxious Apple smugness. Besides, the Apple commercials were always missing a third character - Richard Stallman in a toga riding a GNU.
Operating systems need to stop being argued like a religion, I'm getting tired of it.
If you don't like your OS being like a religion, maybe you should get out of the Cathedral and visit the Bazaar.
and none of those parodies are as good as this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7PhJp3ciRQ
The only Mac Office customers who aren't pissed are the ones who haven't used the software yet.
Windows users can have their "PC," I'll just call my Linux boxes a workstation, a set-top-box, a home server, etc. "PC" just sounds so bland anyway.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
Operating systems need to stop being argued like a religion, I'm getting tired of it.
Yeah, it's taking the focus away from the KDE vs. Gnome and vi vs. emacs arguments.
"the representation wasn't any more absurd that the right-wing characterization"
Did you really expect the impossible?
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
What MS really needs to do to kick Apple's ass is to show a side by side comparison of Vista and OSX to show people how different they are and why Vista is so much better.
My father was in advertising, and he always spoke, as if it were a rule, that you NEVER respond to criticism in an advertisement
My father used to say "never quote your father"
Windows is bloated, dim witted, and isn't nimble.
There is a difference between stereotyping and accuracy.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The purpose of John Hodgman was not to "stereotype" PC users. The purpose was to provide a boring image of PCs themselves through the comedy of John Hodgman.
No, John Hodgman is supposed to be boring Bill Gates, while the other guy represents hip, creative Steve Jobs. That's why they piss off Bill so much.
I know this because at an Apple developers conference, they showed a tape of John Hodgman (in the same suit and using the same whiny voice) announce that he had been talking to Steve Jobs recently, and that Steve had told him that "all Mac developers should immediately stop innovating and go help Bill with Vista."
Then he added "we need a lot of help with that."